A respectable effort from Mazda, albeit with one too many rows of seats.

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Language is imprecise and fungible. One person's SUV is another person's crossover. One company's mid-size crossover is another company's full-size SUV. In other words, marketing materials and commercials don't tell the whole story when it comes to the most popular car segment in the US. I recently spent a week behind the wheel of a 2018 Mazda CX-9 Grand Touring AWD. Mazda calls it a three-row, mid-size, seven-passenger SUV. Volkswagen makes a very similar looking vehicle named the Atlas and also calls it a three-row, mid-size, seven-passenger SUV. And while they're also priced within a few thousand dollars of each other, they may as well inhabit different universes.

Further Reading

Last year, we looked at the CX-5, Mazda's most recently revamped SUV aimed up-market. The year before that vehicle debuted, Mazda took the same luxury-aspiring design philosophy and aimed the CX-9 at the mid-size SUV segment currently occupied by the likes of the Audi Q7 and Acura MDX. Unlike the Audi or Acura, you can get into a very nicely specced-out CX-9 for under $50,000. Is it a worthwhile alternative at that price?

Let's start with the looks. While not unattractive, nothing about the CX-9 jumps out. It's kind of thick-looking, with a gently sloping roofline and a cabin that tapers inward at the rear. Head-on, you can see Mazda's Kodo design language in action—the SUV gives the impression of a smart, metallic being that has just decided what kind of shenanigans it's about to get into. The familiar Mazda grill blends into the LED headlights to form the eyes of the face, while metal trim several inches below the grill accounts for the crafty smile. On the back side, Mazda uses a piece of metallic trim to join the taillights and another bit of trim just above the twin exhaust pipes. From the side, the CX-9 looks vaguely Q7-ish.

Luxury lite

The Mazda CX-9.

Eric Bangeman

It's unquestionably a Mazda with that grill.

Eric Bangeman

The back side of the CX-9.

Eric Bangeman

The 2.5-liter twin turbo in the CX-9 provides sufficient oomph.

Eric Bangeman

The CX-9 Grand Touring AWD comes with 20-inch alloy wheels.

Eric Bangeman

The CX-9's "face" makes me think it's plotting something sneaky.

Eric Bangeman

We're just four paragraphs into the review, and you'll have noticed the Q7 has already come up a few times. There's a reason for that—Mazda has apparently paid a lot of attention to how Audi builds a quality SUV/crossover and has worked hard to put its own spin on that vehicle type. But the CX-9 is so much cheaper. Where the Audi Q7 starts at $49,900, the CX-9 begins at just $32,130. With the Grand Touring trim, the sticker price is $42,270. Add $1,995 for a pair of LCDs to keep the middle-row passengers occupied, another $300 for Machine Gray Metallic paint, and the unavoidable delivery fee, and you're at $45,540.

That 45-large gets you a 2.5-liter Skyactiv-G twin-turbo that cranks out 227hp (169.3kW) and 310lb-ft (420.3nM) of torque. It comes with a six-speed automatic transmission, 20-inch wheels, power seats, a backup camera, and all of Mazda's active driver-assist features. Getting the equivalent stuff on a Q7 moves you close to $60,000. But with Audi, you get more—and that's the theme I kept returning to as I found myself behind the wheel of the CX-9.

The CX-9 interior is very polished. When you sit down in the driver's seat and close the door, it makes that satisfying, quiet "thunk" you hear from a well-built luxury car. The interior color palette is muted as well: there's no brown, orange, or red anywhere—just black, chrome, and brushed gunmetal-gray aluminum trim accents that pair nicely with the sand-colored seats and black headliner.

All in all, the CX-9 offers a very muted and sedate environment for both drivers and passengers. Mazda's designers pay a lot of attention to the idea of "visual noise," and they go to great pains to make sure typefaces, textures, and grains are consistent throughout. The seats are comfortable and supportive, although only the driver gets lumbar support. The back seats get their own climate control and a pair of USB ports in the center armrest.

Adults will find the back seat fairly comfortable, but there are tradeoffs to be made between adequate front-seat and back-seat legroom when four adults are in the car. The third row? That's only for preteens and adults who have wronged you. Legroom in that row is minimal, and getting back there requires sliding the second row forward, tilting the seats, and squeezing through the narrow opening to your fate. It's a far cry from the roomy third row of the VW Atlas but very similar to the Q7, both of which have almost exactly the same external dimensions as the CX-9. The only difference is a bit more width in Audi's third row at the shoulders, as the Mazda body curves inward, creating even less space.

There's not much room for cargo when the third row is occupied, either, with just 14.4ft3 of space. Drop the third row and that increases to 38.2ft3, maxing out at 71.2ft3 with the second row flat.

You'll interact with the Mazda Connect infotainment system via a dial and a few buttons on the center console, but the UI on the included eight-inch color display looks spartan. Navigating through the layers of menus requires a lot of twisting and clicking, and Mazda could have done a better job with it. There's also a noticeable lag between turning the ignition and the infotainment display being ready for use. There are some puzzling quirks, as well, like song and artist titles not being displayed in full, despite ample room on the screen. I also got an Import Contacts progress bar each time I started the car up. Android Auto and CarPlay are not available in Mazdas, so you're stuck with Mazda Connect and the built-in GPS system. It's adequate but out of sync with the luxury vibe the CX-9 puts off.

Like the CX-5, the instrument cluster consists of a speedometer in the center, tachometer at left, and a multifunction display on the right. The latter can be tweaked to show trip stats, driver-assist info, and current mileage. But it could be more useful—stuff that you'd see in Audi's Virtual Cockpit, like tire pressure, radio station, and a simple interface for making phone calls, are notably missing.

The leather-wrapped steering wheel can be adjusted manually, and Mazda reserves the left side for controlling the radio and multifunction display, while the right is devoted to driver-assist features. It's also heated, but I only felt the warmth at the 8-, 10-, 2-, and 4-o'clock positions.

Rollin’ down the road

The cockpit is comfortable and offers good ergonomics.

Eric Bangeman

Comfortable and supportive seats in the front row.

Eric Bangeman

The second row of the CX-9

Eric Bangeman

A tight squeeze to access the third row.

Eric Bangeman

Your third row legroom.

Eric Bangeman

Not much cargo space with the third row up.

Eric Bangeman

I liked the way the buttons on the CX-9 steering wheel are laid out.

Eric Bangeman

The CX-9 instrument panel. The LCD display on the right could be much more useful.

Eric Bangeman

The center console of the CX-9.

Eric Bangeman

A spartan UI with not much beyond basic functionality.

Eric Bangeman

From the album Rubber So

Eric Bangeman

This would be more useful with a front-facing camera.

Eric Bangeman

The heads-up display on the CX-9, complete with stop sign recognition. It had a problem distinguishing between speed-limit signs

Eric Bangeman

The Grand Touring trim comes with Mazda's heads-up display, which shows the usual speed, navigation, and driver-assist data. The HUD also has a visual blind-spot warning, which I found useful. Mazda touts the CX-9's traffic-sign recognition, which is a mixed bag. When you approach a stop sign, you'll also see a stop sign in the heads-up display. But the CX-9 I drove found speed-limit signs confusing. There's one stretch of tollway, Interstate 355 in the southwest suburbs of Chicago, that has three different speed limits, depending on the type of vehicle you're driving. The signs are always positioned three in a row, and I noticed the speed-limit sign on the CX-9 change from 70mph to 60mph and finally 65mph in the span of a few seconds. (The actual speed limit for cars is 70mph.)

Sight lines are about as good as they get with a crossover-slash-SUV of this type.

On the road, the CX-9 offers a smooth if unexciting ride. You'll feel somewhat insulated from rough spots of pavement thanks to Mazda's dynamic stability control. Cornering is on par for a kitted-out mid-size SUV. You're not going to attack curves aggressively, but if you end up cornering faster than you'd like, it's stable enough. Mazda includes a sport-mode switch on the center console. Flicking it changes up the throttle control and shift points, resulting in really aggressive acceleration with a bit of tire spin when flooring it from a dead stop. It's also loud.

Speaking of loud, Mazda has done a fine job insulating the cabin from road noise. Indeed, the CX-9 is one of the quieter crossover/SUVs I've driven lately, approaching the noise levels of an Audi Q5 or Range Rover Velar.

Mazda rates the CX-9 at 23mpg: 20mpg in the city and 26mpg on the highway. I got 22.1mpg in about 400 miles of driving, including a 130-mile cruise on interstates and rural highways that clocked in at 24.2mpg.

Driver-assist on the Mazda is good enough. The adaptive cruise control is marketed as stop-and-go; if you come to a dead stop in traffic, the indicator will change from green to white and you will have to hit the resume button on the steering wheel to begin moving again. I found the lane-keep assist system underwhelming, however. The CX-9 I drove was equipped with lane-keep assist in addition to lane-departure warnings, but the correction is so minor as to be unnoticeable in some cases. At least I'd get a good, solid vibration from the steering wheel when the CX-9 began to wander out of its lane.

The blind-spot warning was somewhat over-aggressive. At one point, it flashed when a car two lanes over came roaring up; another time, it flashed at me when I drove past a trashcan in my alley at 10mph. I did appreciate seeing the warnings in the heads-up display, however. A standard backup camera is paired with collision-avoidance warning, and there are also sensors in the front of the car to assist you in close quarters. But I found myself guessing how close I actually was to an object without the 360° camera view.

Mazda has done an admirable job with the fit and finish of its biggest SUV, and the initial positive impression I got when I first sat down in it held up throughout my driving. And the price is certainly right if you compare it to an Acura MDX or Audi Q7. But it lacks that last bit of polish you would expect from a luxury car. Turn off the ignition while the window is being rolled up and the window stops in place. The infotainment system is spartan and unpolished, with no support for Android Auto or CarPlay. That said, if you're in the market for an upscale mid-size SUV and don't care about people suffering in the third row, the Mazda CX-9 might be a fine choice—especially if you don't want to spend Audi money.

112 Reader Comments

It's kind of pointless to criticize these kinds of vehicles for having an uncomfortable 3rd row of seats. If you need 3rd row room you need a van specialized for the purpose.

The third row of seats is for families with kids or an occasional need to drive adults. People who buy these vehicles know that the 3rd row is cramped.

We had a cx-9, great vehicle. My criticism is that it's too f*cking big but we had little kids and geriatric grandparents who needed to be driven around. People who buy them know that, too.

The real story is that mazda cranked out an SUV that punches above it's weight in style, efficiency, reliability and comfort. They are the market leader in value right now and everyone should be paying close attention to what they are doing.

It looks like the Infotainment hasn't been upgraded since I bought my 2015 Mazda. A shame because it showed lots of promise and was somewhat hack-able. The command dial is seriously underrated though. At first glance it seems like they ripped it right from a BMW, but in my experience, the Mazda infotainment and command dial is superior.

For starters, the infotainment system in a lot of other modern cars are just overwhelming. They try to put way too much information on the screen with way too many colors and buttons. I can barely figure them out as a passenger, let alone as a driver.

The "spartan" interface, while it could probably use a bit of a refresher, should not be knocked for keeping only the essential information on the screen. With only a few options at a time, limited colors, and a physical interface (the command dial) make it probably the easiest and safest infotainment system to use.

It's the same interface as in my Mazda6 - and its definitely hackable although the latest software updates require a laptop and a usb-serial dongle and a couple of wires the first time you do it. Mods include Android Auto, but not the Apple CarPlay system.. also, a video player, loads of tweaks to the interface including support for changing colors, backgrounds etc, speedo based on GPS plus a lot of others (as well as SSH access etc). Mazda say it invalidates the warranty on the CMU, but it is easy to uninstall it all so no worries there.

I really dislike this trend of the "infotainment" display migrating to a cancerous growth on top of the dash. I can understand it's probably for safety reasons (glancing at the GPS keeps your eyes closer to the road) but it looks awful.At least it's not as bad as a Subaru interior. My buddy has a 2016 WRX, and I count at least 5 LCD displays the driver has to look at. The Crosstrek seems to have dialed it back some, but still, yeesh.

I have something of a love hate relationship with cars and hence with the reviews of cars on ars technica.

If we want to fight global warming and pollution I believe we have to scale down our resource usage. Hence move to smaller cars. Yet most of the reviews on ars are about big bulky cars that can transport seven persons which are used to transport one person 80% of the time.

The mazda has nice lines and is probably a nice car, but the industries obsession with big SUV's makes me sad.

I really dislike this trend of the "infotainment" display migrating to a cancerous growth on top of the dash. I can understand it's probably for safety reasons (glancing at the GPS keeps your eyes closer to the road) but it looks awful.At least it's not as bad as a Subaru interior. My buddy has a 2016 WRX, and I count at least 5 LCD displays the driver has to look at. The Crosstrek seems to have dialed it back some, but still, yeesh.

I have a CX-9 and generally really, really like. Drives great, especially for it's size.

But I agree with you that the consolidation of controls into one panel really sucks. Like the radio controls occupy the same screen real estate as the nav. So if you have the nav on and you want to change radio stations or switch audio sources, you have to consider your timing.

I have something of a love hate relationship with cars and hence with the reviews of cars on ars technica.

If we want to fight global warming and pollution I believe we have to scale down our resource usage. Hence move to smaller cars. Yet most of the reviews on ars are about big bulky cars that can transport seven persons which are used to transport one person 80% of the time.

The mazda has nice lines and is probably a nice car, but the industries obsession with big SUV's makes me sad.

if people are buying 7 seaters because they want to transport more people that's a good thing. it's far better than buying a "small" car that only moves 1 person

I really dislike this trend of the "infotainment" display migrating to a cancerous growth on top of the dash. I can understand it's probably for safety reasons (glancing at the GPS keeps your eyes closer to the road) but it looks awful.At least it's not as bad as a Subaru interior. My buddy has a 2016 WRX, and I count at least 5 LCD displays the driver has to look at. The Crosstrek seems to have dialed it back some, but still, yeesh.

It's so they can lower the dashboard. Look at the 2017 Accord vs 2018 Accord interior. Moving to the tablet style helped Honda make the dashboard less bulbous.

That is a US only perspective on the vehicle. For the Chinese market, that third row is a must have feature. Without it, your vehicle would not even be considered by 99% of potential customers.

For all those 3-4-5 children families in China?

I don’t mean to sound snarky, but would appreciate some more elaboration here. I know the government has recently relaxed regulations and is allowing a second child in many instances (which feels weird to type), but why would the Chinese so badly need that third row? Grandparents?

I really like Mazda's KODO design, in my opinion they produce the best looking SUV in the industry, much better than what Audi, BMW, Mercedes (and Lexus, but that's not a high bar in this case) produce.

It's a pitty that most people are only looking for a badge and a status-symbol when there are nicer vehicules around for much cheaper. Personnaly, I'm not in the market for a SUV, but if I was, I would buy a Mazda.

I have something of a love hate relationship with cars and hence with the reviews of cars on ars technica.

If we want to fight global warming and pollution I believe we have to scale down our resource usage. Hence move to smaller cars. Yet most of the reviews on ars are about big bulky cars that can transport seven persons which are used to transport one person 80% of the time.

The mazda has nice lines and is probably a nice car, but the industries obsession with big SUV's makes me sad.

if people are buying 7 seaters because they want to transport more people that's a good thing. it's far better than buying a "small" car that only moves 1 person

That would be nice but at least where I live most of the SUVs are transporting one person most of the time. (Commute)

It's kind of pointless to criticize these kinds of vehicles for having an uncomfortable 3rd row of seats. If you need 3rd row room you need a van specialized for the purpose.

The third row of seats is for families with kids or an occasional need to drive adults. People who buy these vehicles know that the 3rd row is cramped.

We had a cx-9, great vehicle. My criticism is that it's too f*cking big but we had little kids and geriatric grandparents who needed to be driven around. People who buy them know that, too.

The real story is that mazda cranked out an SUV that punches above it's weight in style, efficiency, reliability and comfort. They are the market leader in value right now and everyone should be paying close attention to what they are doing.

I disagree on the third row. The reason I brought the Atlas up at the beginning of the review is because Volkswagen pulled off the task of having a usable third row despite the Atlas being just 1" longer than the CX-9.

I'm with you 100% on the punching above its weight, hence the headline.

That is a US only perspective on the vehicle. For the Chinese market, that third row is a must have feature. Without it, your vehicle would not even be considered by 99% of potential customers.

Well not 99%. 2-row Volkswagen and Buick sedans sell very well in China, several appear on the top 10 sellers list every year. Not saying the 3-row people haulers don't sell really well there (the #1 and #2 best selling cars are 3-rows right now), but it's definitely not 99 or even 90% of the market.

Here's the thing tho.. a 2013 Q7 has pretty much all the same features except the HUD.

The Q7 also has over 50% higher base price and ridiculous maintenance costs.

Point was all this technology they are trying to sell you existed since 2010 and other manufactures have better experience with it. Those "ridicilous" maintenance costs are coming to Japanese vehicles too now that they are putting these sensors and electrical gremlins in their cars

Is this supposed to be surprising? That's obviously how the car industry works, new features show up in expensive cars first and become cheaper over time. Nobody said the CX-9 is revolutionary, it's just a good and affordable car. Japanese cars have been packed with tons of sensors for decades at this point, just like everybody else, somehow they have not been plagued with reliability problems so far.

From a technology, look and drive feeling, the cx-5 is almost the same.One cost me 40k and the other 27k...

Guess which one is which...

This takes Mazda one notch up with a premium economy offer to the ones that like a nice car but they don't want to spend that much.

By the way, Android auto and car play have been announced by Mazda and they will be offered as an accessory end of this year.I thought that information could have been added to the article. It's basically the only thing that I dislike in my current car and that's about to be fixed

Here's the thing tho.. a 2013 Q7 has pretty much all the same features except the HUD.

Nobody should cross shop a 5 year old Audi Q7 with this. Even if the price to buy in 2018 is the same, the price to keep the Q7 on the road is going to be grotesque in comparison to a new cheap to service car. The Q7 is not a practical choice, it's a luxury vehicle, even if the price of entry is now low thanks to brutal depreciation.

It's the same interface as in my Mazda6 - and its definitely hackable although the latest software updates require a laptop and a usb-serial dongle and a couple of wires the first time you do it. Mods include Android Auto, but not the Apple CarPlay system.. also, a video player, loads of tweaks to the interface including support for changing colors, backgrounds etc, speedo based on GPS plus a lot of others (as well as SSH access etc). Mazda say it invalidates the warranty on the CMU, but it is easy to uninstall it all so no worries there.

Yeah. I was going to say it looks like my Mazda6. Didn't realize I was driving a luxury vehicle under 25k. High five for me?

It's the same interface as in my Mazda6 - and its definitely hackable although the latest software updates require a laptop and a usb-serial dongle and a couple of wires the first time you do it. Mods include Android Auto, but not the Apple CarPlay system.. also, a video player, loads of tweaks to the interface including support for changing colors, backgrounds etc, speedo based on GPS plus a lot of others (as well as SSH access etc). Mazda say it invalidates the warranty on the CMU, but it is easy to uninstall it all so no worries there.

Yeah. I was going to say it looks like my Mazda6. Didn't realize I was driving a luxury vehicle under 25k. High five for me?

This isn't a luxury car. The interior isn't even as nice as the equivalent Toyota. That said, this car is, IMO, the best in it's class. This year's version (also last year's version maybe, I think they are the same, in Australia at least) is also better inside than previous versions. It's the current front-runner for my wife's new car at this point, having sat in every other car in its class and read ~50% of all reviews on the internet.

Here's the thing tho.. a 2013 Q7 has pretty much all the same features except the HUD.

Nobody should cross shop a 5 year old Audi Q7 with this. Even if the price to buy in 2018 is the same, the price to keep the Q7 on the road is going to be grotesque in comparison to a new cheap to service car. The Q7 is not a practical choice, it's a luxury vehicle, even if the price of entry is now low thanks to brutal depreciation.

Wife and I have a friend who works for CarMax as a wholesale buyer (buys from auctions). Says his favorite cars are Audis since they get company cars that they can swap out, but he fervently states to never buy one out of warranty.

Here's the thing tho.. a 2013 Q7 has pretty much all the same features except the HUD.

Nobody should cross shop a 5 year old Audi Q7 with this. Even if the price to buy in 2018 is the same, the price to keep the Q7 on the road is going to be grotesque in comparison to a new cheap to service car. The Q7 is not a practical choice, it's a luxury vehicle, even if the price of entry is now low thanks to brutal depreciation.

Wife and I have a friend who works for CarMax as a wholesale buyer (buys from auctions). Says his favorite cars are Audis since they get company cars that they can swap out, but he fervently states to never buy one out of warranty.

I think that most people that buy a used luxury vehicle do this mistake only once. Yes thanks to the high depreciation of luxury vehicle, you can find a used one for a reasonable price, but the maintenance cost don't depreciate. Since most of these luxury vehicles (except Lexus) have moderate to poor reliability, you have a recipe for disaster...

I have something of a love hate relationship with cars and hence with the reviews of cars on ars technica.

If we want to fight global warming and pollution I believe we have to scale down our resource usage. Hence move to smaller cars. Yet most of the reviews on ars are about big bulky cars that can transport seven persons which are used to transport one person 80% of the time.

The mazda has nice lines and is probably a nice car, but the industries obsession with big SUV's makes me sad.

if people are buying 7 seaters because they want to transport more people that's a good thing. it's far better than buying a "small" car that only moves 1 person

That would be nice but at least where I live most of the SUVs are transporting one person most of the time. (Commute)

Sure, after dropping their three kids off at two different schools before going to work. I'm a commuting parent... why the hate?

Im somewhat suprised they didn't compare this to the Pilot. Roughly the same segment, and we looked at the then-Cx9 when we got our pilot in 2016. Sadly the pilot didn't have CarPlay then (though others in the Accord family soon got them) but other then that it's been a good car for us. Especially since they brought up the MDX, which is of course an upscale Pilot.

Eric, that observation appears to be backed up by your story history, which is dominated by crossovers and SUVs. I understand why there are car reviews, but perhaps we could see more variety in the kinds of cars you review? There are definitely readers who are in the market for technologically impressive (and reasonably priced) small cars, for city living. Please give it some thought.

Here's the thing tho.. a 2013 Q7 has pretty much all the same features except the HUD.

Nobody should cross shop a 5 year old Audi Q7 with this. Even if the price to buy in 2018 is the same, the price to keep the Q7 on the road is going to be grotesque in comparison to a new cheap to service car. The Q7 is not a practical choice, it's a luxury vehicle, even if the price of entry is now low thanks to brutal depreciation.

Wife and I have a friend who works for CarMax as a wholesale buyer (buys from auctions). Says his favorite cars are Audis since they get company cars that they can swap out, but he fervently states to never buy one out of warranty.

I think that most people that buy a used luxury vehicle do this mistake only once. Yes thanks to the high depreciation of luxury vehicle, you can find a used one for a reasonable price, but the maintenance cost don't depreciate. Since most of these luxury vehicles (except Lexus) have moderate to poor reliability, you have a recipe for disaster...

I have a young coworker who bought a used E60 M5 last year. She was super proud of the car, it was in really nice condition for a 12 year old car and very cheap. I had (leased) a similar car when it was new and we met up so I could take a look after she bought it. Car looks good, no obvious problems but it is at 80k. I really really hope she somehow gets miraculously lucky, because there are many single repairs on that car that will cost more than she paid for it and I know she isn't prepared for them. It will be a painful lesson to learn sadly.

Here's the thing tho.. a 2013 Q7 has pretty much all the same features except the HUD.

Nobody should cross shop a 5 year old Audi Q7 with this. Even if the price to buy in 2018 is the same, the price to keep the Q7 on the road is going to be grotesque in comparison to a new cheap to service car. The Q7 is not a practical choice, it's a luxury vehicle, even if the price of entry is now low thanks to brutal depreciation.

a completely misinformed opinion, understandable because of the social engineering by American car manufacturers to put the fear of European vehicles into the American market. Most cars will follow the bathtub curve (look it up) in maintenance costs, that's why car manufacturers will offer their standard 5yr/80k factory warranties. The failure rate during those first 5 years is highest.

The next 5 has low maintenance costs because they break the least during this period, again you'll get offered extended warranties about 4-5 years after the original warranty period expires, after the 10 year mark the failure rate rises again.

So you buy your "new" madza cx9 for 45k, when you can buy a 5 year old Q7 for 25k with the same technology, same features and same maintenance costs, you end up saving yourself 20k (minus 5k in maintenance costs) you'll still come out ahead.

You're not doing yourself any favors buying a new depreciating asset, it's just a waste of money with a bit of social engineering thrown in on the side to scare you about your options.

keep drinking that cool-aid

Haha what? I've owned more than a half dozen German luxury/sports cars, I pretty much drove them exclusively from the mid 90s to the late 2000s in fact. When I was in my 20s I did in fact buy used, but I knew what I was getting in to as an enthusiast and willing to do the work. Now I buy new because I can afford it and like shiny new toys without hassle. (I've got a track car for my tinkering pleasure anyway)

I know exactly what kinds of trouble you can run into. What American cool-aid do you think I'm drinking recommending a *Mazda* over a used Q7.

I have something of a love hate relationship with cars and hence with the reviews of cars on ars technica.

If we want to fight global warming and pollution I believe we have to scale down our resource usage. Hence move to smaller cars. Yet most of the reviews on ars are about big bulky cars that can transport seven persons which are used to transport one person 80% of the time.

The mazda has nice lines and is probably a nice car, but the industries obsession with big SUV's makes me sad.

if people are buying 7 seaters because they want to transport more people that's a good thing. it's far better than buying a "small" car that only moves 1 person

That would be nice but at least where I live most of the SUVs are transporting one person most of the time. (Commute)

so what? if it passes emissions and they want to drive a custom lifted 73 ford f100 that gets 7MPG there's nothing you can do about it. why then would you clumsily attempt to shame somebody for buying a new freaking cx9?

it's their judgment call about how many rows they need, and if you see them driving solo you want to just assume they could've bought a nissan leaf but went cx9 instead? why do you let your brain work that way?

Eric, that observation appears to be backed up by your story history, which is dominated by crossovers and SUVs. I understand why there are car reviews, but perhaps we could see more variety in the kinds of cars you review? There are definitely readers who are in the market for technologically impressive (and reasonably priced) small cars, for city living. Please give it some thought.

No, not really. Eric is reviewing SUVs and crossovers. Other reviews (EVs, sedans, sports cars) will be from me or freelancers. I explain the reasons why here: viewtopic.php?p=35223639#p35223639

Here's the thing tho.. a 2013 Q7 has pretty much all the same features except the HUD.

Nobody should cross shop a 5 year old Audi Q7 with this. Even if the price to buy in 2018 is the same, the price to keep the Q7 on the road is going to be grotesque in comparison to a new cheap to service car. The Q7 is not a practical choice, it's a luxury vehicle, even if the price of entry is now low thanks to brutal depreciation.

Wife and I have a friend who works for CarMax as a wholesale buyer (buys from auctions). Says his favorite cars are Audis since they get company cars that they can swap out, but he fervently states to never buy one out of warranty.

I think that most people that buy a used luxury vehicle do this mistake only once. Yes thanks to the high depreciation of luxury vehicle, you can find a used one for a reasonable price, but the maintenance cost don't depreciate. Since most of these luxury vehicles (except Lexus) have moderate to poor reliability, you have a recipe for disaster...

Here's the thing tho.. a 2013 Q7 has pretty much all the same features except the HUD.

Nobody should cross shop a 5 year old Audi Q7 with this. Even if the price to buy in 2018 is the same, the price to keep the Q7 on the road is going to be grotesque in comparison to a new cheap to service car. The Q7 is not a practical choice, it's a luxury vehicle, even if the price of entry is now low thanks to brutal depreciation.

Wife and I have a friend who works for CarMax as a wholesale buyer (buys from auctions). Says his favorite cars are Audis since they get company cars that they can swap out, but he fervently states to never buy one out of warranty.

I think that most people that buy a used luxury vehicle do this mistake only once. Yes thanks to the high depreciation of luxury vehicle, you can find a used one for a reasonable price, but the maintenance cost don't depreciate. Since most of these luxury vehicles (except Lexus) have moderate to poor reliability, you have a recipe for disaster...

The 5 year old Q7 is likely to have some serious mileage on it, a new CX-9 won't. Even if CR data is accurate, it's not saying a 5 year old Q7 is somehow more reliable. Further, any problem on the CX-9 is covered by the warranty, not the case with the old Audi. That means any problem is suddenly an out of pocket expensive. On top of that, the same repair / maintenance is vastly more expensive on the Audi. Even if the Audi has 2 problems and the Mazda has 3 over the same ownership term, you'll have spent far more on the Audi.